EPA proposes restoring biofuel volumes lost to refinery exemptions — PEOSTA, Iowa — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced Tuesday at the Dubuque County Farm Bureau in Peosta a proposal to reallocate 100% of additional 2025 small refinery exemption volumes under the Renewable Fuel Standard. When EPA grants small refineries exemptions from blending requirements, the exempted volumes come out of the renewable fuel market. The proposal would put them back, so the exemptions don’t reduce overall demand for corn and soybeans. The announcement came after Zeldin and Rep. Ashley Hinson toured the Big River United Energy ethanol facility in Dyersville. EPA is offering two ways to do it: split the more than 770 million exempted renewable fuel credits evenly across the 2026 and 2027 compliance years, or assign all of them to 2027. Public comments are open through Dec. 4. Iowa farm groups welcomed the move — the Iowa Corn Growers Association said it sends “a strong market signal” to farmers and biofuels producers, and Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig called full reallocation “an important step toward delivering the certainty our farmers and biofuel producers need.”

Sources: EPA release Oct. 14,